Hi All:
Duane wanted to try Spirit Airlines again, as the ticket is considerably cheaper. However, we did wonder, as we sat in traffic barely moving for 45 minutes on 96 around Lansing on the way to Detroit, waiting for construction delays and wondering if we would be late for the plane, then when we tried to get our luggage sent directly to Port au Prince and the poor lady at the desk could not make the computer send the luggage from Detroit to Orlando, then Ft Lauderdale and on to Port and giving up after trying it repeatedly for another 45 minutes and just hand writing it in on the suitcases, making us wonder if the luggage would indeed make it, then adding costs for everything, including carry on and each bag of luggage (and we had to pay for it twice, as they couldn’t make the trip one piece, so had to pay from Detroit to Florida and again from Florida to Haiti). Our fiancial advantages of a cheaper airline seemed to be slipping into the proverbial mud slides of Haiti.
I must admit the flights themselves were very smooth and we made it to Ft. Lauderdale by 11 pm and settled on the floor to sleep as we had to be back at the airport at 5 am. One rapidly realizes that he has many more protruding bones than the anatomy books detail when you sleep on the floor. Tried hanging over a chair but have too many dangling parts with the head hanging over one chair arm, the legs over the other and the arms flopping wherever, so back to the floor. We had dressed warmly so only lacked for more padding and maybe less noise as there were flights til 2 pm, long announcements on the loudspeakers, detailing everything in both English and Spanish, and then they restarted at 4 am. We landed early in Port, at 9 am and called our ride, who was bringing a physician and another ACC board member to the airport. After we collected everything and exchanged some information, as the ACC board is deliberating on resurrecting the Bonne Fin Hospital and we shared some thoughts sitting under the almond trees by the airport, we were on our way to Cayes. Joan Reinhard had driven the group to the airport and brought us back, along with Beth Newton, our nurse practitioner and Sheila, another ACC person who is functioning as Bonne Fin’s administrative liaison for ACC, a formidable job. They also had Joan’s little 3 yr old daughter, Faith, with them. The trip went fine, though Faith, who had apparently slept over 3 hr of the trip in to Port the day before, kept wondering if we were there yet and why this direction was so much longer than the way in?
Monday went quite well, despite a late start on my part. I somehow set my alarm for 6 pm instead of 6 am and woke up wondering why it was so light outside. Duane was banging around in the container next door, he apparently had come to the door at 7 am and wondered why the place was still locked up, I seem to have slept through that also. Other than a few minor bumps in the road, surgery went well, did 4 hysterectomies and a bunch of smaller cases, plus a dead breech baby that came in from the villages, very sad, but we hope we will at least save the mom as she is only in her early 20s and has lost 2 of the 3 pregnancies. Duane sorted through most of the container stuff as it was all mixed, it came earlier than we expected and so we didn’t get a chance to send Rod instructions as to what was in there and medical supplies were mixed with construction and others. I couldn’t find any translators to help him so sent in Miss Line, one of my OR nurses and the 4 of them did great from the looks of it. Tomorrow they will start digging the foundations for the clinic addition as we are running short of rooms for the doctors to see patients in. Dan and Duane’s team will hopefully be able to complete the work in February, but will start what we can now. Am trying to figure out a way to make blocks before then without too much attrition in either the block count or the cement mixture, common practices in Haiti and contributing to the unstable walls that came tumbling down in the earthquake. Outsourcing work is a risky business here also.
Tuesday didn’t start out so well as woke up at the right time but no electricity as someone had run the diesel generator dry, a real no no, but it also seems like we fried a relay switch on the electrical board. Dan Boerman was able to obtain the board on short notice, very much appreciated, but we tried for several hours to bypass the board and are having problems with the fuel system it seems also. Rod, Duane and I worked on it til dark, as the power went off at 3 pm, while we were doing our 4th hysterectomy of the day, we had just entered the abdomen so at the point of no return. The battery backup did well but has a bit of trouble running the cautery as must be the electrical output doesn’t tolerate that much pull at one time. Maybe if I turned the OR lights off, it would work, but not sure that is an option. Since the lady was big, not all that tall, we struggled with sweat as of course the ACs don’t work on the batteries, so got a bit warm in there.
However, the election results are supposed to be out tonight, so the government has imposed a curfew to keep things quiet, but it seems they also figured to keep people at home by not providing electricity, so couldn’t do the C section I had planned this evening, nor a couple hernias. Rod and Duane have figured to try to set up the generator we sent in the container, though will need a dozen strong men to help them wrangle it into the generator shack and into place. So, they hope to do that in the morning as electricity seems rather questionable for the time being. Of course, not sure how we can get diesel again, but will hope we can find some somewhere during the hours the curfew is lifted. Plus, no power means no water and no showers and I don’t feel all that clean with the bucket washing I have had to do today and tomorrow again. Other than that, we are doing great and making some progress.
Thanks for praying for wisdom, safety and God’s direction for the rest of the week. We need it in many ways.
Bill (and Duane)